I heard a rumor
by Lonersoforlorn
Summary: Allison Hargreeves is ready to live in reality. Also posted on Ao3.


Allison Hargreeves didn't know how to be a real person. And who could blame her when every part of her life was a lie. A lie of her own creation. And it all started with a rumor. With only a rumor.

Before she was Allison, she had no name. Only a number. A number out of seven other adopted kids all born on the same day. Number 3. And she grew up with the knowledge that she wasn't normal. Not in any type of way. Some might describe her as extraordinary. She used to think so too.

Until for the first time in Allison Hargreeves life, she lost. Lost custody of her daughter, Claire. She sobbed. She begged but nothing changed. She let reality play out on its own but on the tip of her tongue were those four words. The four words that made her perfect reality and the words that also caused the world she created to unravel. _I heard a rumor..._

The court orders her to go to mandatory therapy, stating if she doesn't go they won't grant her visitation rights. It reminded her of a scene in a movie she did early in her career. Except, back then someone yelled cut ending the scene and allowed Allison to go back to her perfect reality. A reality that now no longer exists.

She had a premiere the next day, so they set an appointment for the day after. She's told she can't miss the appointment, and she assures them she won't. That nothing will stop her from seeing her daughter again.

Photographers yelled out her name all desperate for the perfect shot of her at the premiere of her new movie. Reporters are squeezed in between the group of photographers, and they're yelling out her name too. All of them are vying for her attention. Reporters are also shouting out questions, waiting for her to stumble on an answer.

Oddly enough, they were exactly like her in a strange way. They also had the power to warp reality with just a rumor. Just not in the supernatural way she did.

There were so many articles about how she chose her career over her family. About how she left him. Even though all the tabloids had published the fact that Patrick was the one who filed the divorce papers. The one who had left her.

So many realities existed out there for people to pick and choose to believe. The reality she wanted to live in. The one where she's still the world's shining star. Depended entirely on her getting through this movie premiere. She smiled and gave them all the simplest answers to all of their burning questions. Until suddenly, their questions changed. No longer asking about her movie. No longer asking about her divorce.

They shouted out to her and told her that her dad was gone. All of them, completely in sync. She wondered if they warped reality and somehow made it come true.

It couldn't be true. Her dad wouldn't just...be gone. But it happened to Ben.

One second he was there and the next gone... She kept her face neutral, only briefly letting confusion show on her face as they bombard her with questions. Then someone whisked her off the red carpet, and she found herself stuck in the reality the reporters had made.

She hadn't seen her siblings in years. Come to think of it she hadn't spoken to any of them in years either. She did think of them, even told her daughter, Claire, all about them. Their many adventures had become Claire's favorite bedtime story.

_I heard a rumor that you're really tired and you wanna go to sleep._

Allison flinched at the memory that destroyed her world. Broke her reality. She still felt Patrick's disappointed gaze on her. Remembered the feeling of the divorce papers on her fingertips. She even still felt the shame of what she had done to her daughter scratching at her throat, creating a bloody tattoo on her neck.

Vanya was the first of her siblings that she saw. Her only sister, the one who sold them out for a bestseller. No, she had forgiven Vanya for that. Allison was an adult. Adults don't cling to petty things like tell-all books.

She still hadn't expected Vanya to come back. The way Vanya painted The Umbrella Academy made it seem like she had no intention of ever returning. Allison couldn't blame her. She had also run away from this place with the intention of never coming back.

She wouldn't have ever returned if it wasn't for their dad's funeral. A dad who never loved them. A dad who was always so busy that he never paid attention to any of them.

Her siblings and her really only had each other. Yet in Vanya's book, Vanya made it seem like no one had ever cared for her. Allison cared.

Vanya just wasn't the type to approach or share about how she was feeling. She made herself alone. She separated herself from everyone.

It made Allison frustrated with her. Because Vanya was the only person in the world she couldn't read. And Allison Hargreeves could read anyone. Even without her powers, she had a magnetic way about her. It's one of the many reasons she'd become a household name.

It wasn't completely Vanya's fault though. Dad had always reminded Vanya she was anything but special. If someone did that to her daughter, made her daughter feel worthless because she was powerless, Allison would...

_I heard a rumor you think you're just ordinary._

She didn't understand why her dad made her say those words all those years ago. Why the memory seemed so buried in her mind. She goes over it and over it, but she still doesn't understand.

She went off on Vanya not because she's upset with her. Allison was an adult. An adult who had forgiven her sister for writing a tell-all book when she was at the peak of her fame. An adult who despite her dysfunctional upbringing did love her sister. An adult whose ex-husband just informed her because she missed her mandatory appointment that she wouldn't be granted visitation.

She was at a funeral. A funeral for her dad and that didn't count as a family emergency? Those four words stuck to her tongue again but as much as she wanted to say them. To make her reality change. She held strong and lived with the reality someone else made.

She apologized to Vanya and explained her anger was misplaced. She admitted her flaws, something unusual for a woman who created a world of perfection. Who just months ago never realized she was living her life on a movie set.

Vanya made a joke, and Allison couldn't help but laugh. As they walked back to the house, for the first time in Allison's life she truly felt like a sister. Like Vanya's sister. A role that had been assigned to her days after her birth but only now did she get it.

She had to tell Vanya to stay away from the house for her protection. Vanya cut her off before she could really explain. She was her sister, she didn't want her to get hurt. Vanya took it as an insult. Vanya saw it as yet another way she was being excluded.

Allison tried to explain, she tried to make Vanya understand but Diego told her to let Vanya go and so she did.

Mom was gone. Allison and her siblings had lost the only parents they knew in a matter of days. Someone had to tell Vanya, so Allison volunteered herself.

Leonard Peabody was in Vanya's apartment but Vanya was nowhere to be seen. He told her Vanya left her keys at his place that he was only returning them and using the bathroom. Allison didn't believe a word he said. She saw him ruffling through something in a room that was clearly not the bathroom.

He asked her why she was here. As if Vanya was just a stranger she knew and not her sister. Something was off about this guy. Allison could feel it. She had to warn Vanya.

Outside of the place where Vanya is rehearsing is a newspaper stand. Patrick and Claire are on the cover. Claire looks so different from when she's seen her last. Allison wondered if Claire grew taller, if that loose tooth Claire was worried about came out, and if Claire was really happy. We're doing fine said the bold yellow letters on the magazine.

She wanted to hold Claire. She wanted to see Claire so bad. She was upset. Upset Patrick would put their daughter on a magazine cover without her permission. Upset he was talking about their private lives to the media. And most of all upset he wouldn't let her see Claire.

Vanya saw her first. Allison gives Vanya the news that mom was gone. She also apologized for how she told Vanya to stay away. Vanya tells her that it's fine, cuts her off before she finishes her full apology.

Allison remembered that Vanya's apartment keys were in her hand. She hands them off to Vanya who looks at her confused. Allison didn't want to tell the full story standing in the middle of the street. So she suggests they both get a drink.

Vanya didn't believe her. She thought Leonard Peabody who was giving Allison all the major creep vibes was harmless. Vanya was being naive but Allison couldn't judge her. She knew how it felt to feel that way once.

So when Vanya lifts up the small glass cup she's holding, and says yay sisters? Allison clinks her own glass on hers and repeats her sister's cheer.

They go back to Vanya's place. They were going to have a sister bonding night. Allison couldn't help but plan it out loud. She was so excited about it. They had been so deprived of bonding as children. Now a hole that Allison never realized was there felt filled.

Vanya goes into her bedroom and comes out seconds later with a bouquet of flowers in her hand. She told Allison it was from Leonard.

An alarm goes off in Allison's head. She keeps her face neutral as she reads off the card that came with the flowers. She didn't get it. Didn't understand what Leonard was trying to say.

Vanya did. It was her and Leonard's inside joke she told her sister.

Vanya calls Leonard and as Allison watches Vanya speak to him, she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something very off about Leonard Peabody.

She gets Vanya coffee and a Bomboloni from Petrola's bakery. The exact same thing they used to eat all the time when they were kids. Vanya appreciates the gesture but already made plans with Leonard.

The warning alarm in Allison's head goes off again. She decides to tell Vanya about her concerns. Tell Vanya she's heading into a relationship with Leonard way too fast. Vanya accuses Allison of pushing herself into her life. Told her she could make her own decisions. Allison points out that she's Vanya's sister. That they grew up together. That she was allowed to be concerned.

She tried to get Vanya to look at the bigger picture. Everything about Leonard was perfect. Too perfect.

Allison knew perfect. Perfect was never real. Perfect always crashed down around you, leaving you bloody and broken.

Vanya dealt a low blow and walked out. Allison called out after her but Vanya didn't come back.

Vanya's words repeated in her head. Like a woman who's based her whole life on rumors. Did everyone in her family know her life was a fraud but her? Was she the only one who thought her reality was real?

She took a deep breath. She didn't want to think about her life right now. She focused on Vanya on this whole situation with Leonard Peabody. She knew she was right about this. All she needed was proof.

Allison went to the library and searched Leonard Peabody's name in the newspaper archives. She found only one picture of him out of what felt like hundreds of archives. Something was weird about this whole thing. She searched his name again and found his address. She wrote it down, just in case.

She went back to Vanya's apartment. Vanya answered with a violin in hand. She told Vanya what she found out about Leonard. How it was basically like he didn't exist. Vanya responded by dealing Allison another low blow.

"Well, you're not my mother. Worry about your own daughter." Vanya said.

Allison sighed, what Vanya said wasn't fair. She was her sister. She was supposed to look out for her. Vanya kicks her out and Allison reluctantly leaves.

Breaking and entering isn't something Allison usually does. Or ever does. She did, however, do it for one role she played. In this role, She was a recently fired employee trying to expose that her ex-boss was a crooked businessman. There's a scene where her character breaks into her boss's house. In the movie, her character finds an overwhelming amount of evidence that sends her boss to jail for life.

It didn't work out that way for Allison in real life. In reality, Leonard comes home while she's still searching around his house. She somehow managed to escape undetected, but she left without any proof that Leonard's perfect reality was fake.

They were all going to die. Die fighting whatever was going to bring about the end of the world. As Allison and her brothers tried to process the news of their impending death, Vanya walked in, and she wasn't alone. Leonard Peabody was with her.

She tried to explain to Vanya that she couldn't tell her what they were discussing in front of Leonard. Vanya was too angry to listen. Vanya tossed out angry words. Words that Allison didn't know how to respond to. Words that yet again didn't feel fair. Vanya stormed out and Leonard trailed behind her.

Allison wanted to find Vanya and explain but her brother's reminded her of the more pressing matter of figuring out the cause of the upcoming apocalypse. As they try to muster something that seems close to a plan, their brother five drops down on the bar from a portal of lightning.

Harold Jenkins. If they find him they can stop the apocalypse. The world could be saved. Her family wouldn't die. She wouldn't die. Claire wouldn't die.

While she waited with her brother five for Diego to come back with the file that would lead them to Harold Jenkins, Allison knew there was something she had to do before she and her brothers saved the world. She called Vanya. She tells Vanya that she cares. She tells her she just wants to be a good sister to her. She tells her she hopes she can be forgiven.

As all that poured out of Allison she realized something. She always thought Vanya was pushing her away, pushing everyone away but the reality was Allison never reached out to be pushed away. She left Vanya all alone.

Diego came back, and she immediately took the file from his hand. She flipped through paper after paper inside. She stopped when she got to a picture, a picture with a familiar face. Leonard Peabody stared back at her but that wasn't the name that was listed.

"Harold Jenkins is Leonard Peabody." She said while lifting up the file so her brothers could see the picture.

She went back to the house of Leon-Harold Jenkins but this time with her brothers. She went in exactly the same way she did before, through the backdoor. After Diego tried to show off and destroyed the front door, Allison ended up in the same place she left off before her search was cut off by Harold's return. The door to the attic.

She pulls it down and climbs up there. It's filled with pictures of her and her siblings. Their faces are scratched off. She spotted the mini figures made to look like her and her siblings, the ones that they had displayed back at the house. Their faces are melted off. She yells out for her brothers.

They were both as disturbed as her by the discovery of Harold's Jenkins obsession with them, but they couldn't delve more into it because five passed out. He was bleeding, barely clinging to life. They had to get help quickly.

Mom cleaned and tended five's wound. He would live but he wasn't conscious. Which meant there was no way five could help them defeat the cause of the apocalypse. The original timeline could happen. Would happen. That they would take on the threat without him and all die.

She would die without seeing Claire. Without hearing her voice one last time. She would die knowing her daughter would soon follow her after.

It didn't matter. Allison was ready to forget all about saving the world from the impending apocalypse. If she was going to die it would be with her daughter. It would be with her telling her that everything was okay. It would start with those four words that always wanted to come out, finally coming out and making her daughter not feel any pain.

Diego somehow managed to convince her to stay, and then he went and got arrested. Allison Hargreeves was off to save the world all on her own and this time without a film crew running around. Without a director around to yell cut.

As she drove she kept remembering things she wished she could forget. She remembered all those rumors, all those realities that she built. Worst of all she remembered the night her reality was destroyed. The last night she saw her daughter.

_I heard a rumor that you're really tired and you wanna go to sleep._

Normal moms could handle tantrums. Handle their child not obeying every word they said. Allison couldn't even handle convincing her daughter to eat her vegetables. Not without using her powers.

Allison had played a mom in a total of ten movies in her career. Those moms didn't have powers. When things got tough they didn't warp the reality around them and create a perfect world. They just lived in normal reality. They just dealt with their problems like a normal person. It was so easy for Allison to read words off a script, easy for her to embody all the feelings and motivations of another character. But when it came to real life, when it came to her being a mom to Claire; Allison was a complete failure.

Shame grabbed at her, held her tightly as she drove. She could feel herself choking on words she hadn't said. Feel the words on the tip of her tongue._ I heard a rumor..._

She finally found Vanya after always just missing her all day. She was relieved Vanya was okay. Especially after what she heard happened last night.

The wind was strong, the cabin was shaking and everything about it just seemed so weird to Allison. When she finally sees Vanya she asked her what was causing that and Vanya said it was her. That she also had powers.

Allison wanted to ask Vanya a bunch of questions and find out more about her sister's recent discovery of having powers, but she also knew she had to get Vanya out of this cabin, quick. She had to get her sister out of danger.

Vanya made a comment that causes Allison to just blurt everything out here in the cabin. Vanya doesn't believe her. Refused to accept the truth.

Allison started talking about her powers and as she did that memory played on in Allison's mind. The one she never understood.

_I heard a rumor you think you're just ordinary._

She understood now. She understood everything. She told Vanya about the memory. About what their dad had made her do. Vanya was so angry. The cabin shook, and the wind chimes sounded like they were screaming for help.

It was too much for Allison to handle. She was scared, but she knew she had to reach Vanya. Make sure Vanya knew how much she cared. How much she wanted to be her sister.

She told Vanya she loved her. Told Vanya she was special. Vanya just got angrier, her power growing more intense. The chandelier lights exploded.

Allison knew what she had to do. She had to do the same thing she did once before. She had to make Vanya forget.

She didn't want to. She really didn't want to, but she had no choice. Those words, the four words that were always at the tip of her tongue were ready to be said. And this time she wouldn't stop herself. She'll alter reality if it meant protecting her sister. If it meant Vanya wouldn't hate her.

So with a deep breath, the words that created her perfect reality, the ones that also caused it to unravel finally come out once again.

"I heard a rumor..."


End file.
